Pikmin 2i: Origins
by xXThunderflameXx
Summary: A story of Olimar's third visit to Earth, on yet another treasure hunt. This time, the treasures aren't valuable for themselves, but the secrets they hold within. I think you will find it quite amusing.
1. Beginning

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_ 10,000 Pokos! Incredible! Had I found this first, I could have paid off the entire debt! Of course, I'm not complaining. After all, I was able to build this ship._

As you have no doubt deciphered, Captain Olimar was quite impressed with the value of the last treasure. About a year ago, Olimar had crash-landed on a strange planet, one with plenty of life-giving nitrogen, but also with a large percent of fatally toxic oxygen. His ship, the S.S. Dolphin had sustained heavy damage; in fact, most of the crucial components had broken off entirely. Olimar had made the most fortunate discovery of an organism with both plant and animal traits, which he named Pikmin. With them, Olimar was able to repair his ship, and return to his home planet; Holicate.

The return was far from happy, though. When Olimar returned to his job, he was informed a new employee had accidentally lost a huge shipment of Pikpik carrots (In reality, the hiree, Louie, had eaten the shipment), and the company was in massive debt. The Dolphin was sold, and still 10,000 Holicatan Pokos remained. When Olimar revealed a valuable treasure from the Pikmin planet, he was accompanied by Louie back to the planet to recover more. The pikmin were the obvious choice of muscle. The debt was eventually repaid, but Olimar went back to the planet anyway, partly because more treasure remained, but mainly because Louie had managed to get stranded. Louie was found, and the planet was cleaned out.

Olimar couldn't resist spending a few more days on the planet, though. He had the great fortune of finding a remaining piece of treasure, one which had evaded earlier detection. When he eventually returned, he found a technology company who was very interested in the treasure, and paid a great deal for it. Along with compensation from his employer, he was able to build a new, better, Dolphin, using new technology supplied by the company he sold the treasure to.

--

_"Systems ready. Initiating gravi-flux,"_ The ship's computer, Anna(Artificial Neural Net Algorithm), reported. Unlike the old ship, in fact, unlike any other ship in existence, the _Dolphin X303_ reflected the planet's own gravity to navigate in a planetary setting. The gold-plated ship rose with incomparable grace. Olimar actually enjoyed the experience. The first _Dolphin_ was pretty good, but compared to this, it might as well have been a prison ship. _Or worse, the piece of junk I had to ride in last time_, Olimar joked.

"Good. Take us out of orbit. Set a course to XZ99-2360," Olimar commanded.

"You want to return to the Pikmin Planet?" The Anna replied, "Don't you want to see our family some more?"

"I've had a month to see your mother and siblings. I consider the Pikmin part of the family as well. To bring the two together is partly why I'm going."

--

The _Dolphin X303_ navigated to the edge of Holicate's usable gravitational field, and the interstellar engine ignited. The Dolphin sped faster than Olimar had once thought possible, without loosing a bit of stability. Then the hyperdrive engaged. For all of the advanced tech Olimar had put into the Dolphin X303, he had left out the expensive quantum stabilizer feature, necessary for a smooth jaunt through hyperspace. The ride was therefore very bumpy, but as Olimar had predicted, it was too short to have been any major problem. Olimar was at XZ99-2360 in a fraction of the time of the last trip.

"Alright. Anna, there's a continent who's center is near the equator. Located at the southeast shore of it is a large island. I want you to land there," Olimar instructed.

"Found. Switching to gravi-flux engines, and plotting... WARNING! PERSONAL DISTRESS SIGNAL DETECTED!" Anna declared.

"What!? Take us there!" Olimar ordered. The ship immediately broke off course, and swiftly traveled to a continent in the northern hemisphere of the planet. A continent we know as North America.

--

This had not been Mia's day. She was happy at her desk job, designing new technologies, testing them in computer simulations. There was never any need to leave home, as she could simply E-mail her work to Ligence. Of course, there were always the pleasure things that you just can't bring home to you; vacations, manicures, shopping for clothes with Deb, but the only time she had left Holicate was with her ex-boyfriend.

'Great. Not only is this monster trying to eat me, it also has me thinking about Dick(head)' Mia thought, dodging one of the octopus-like beast's tentacles. The thing was smart. Right after revealing it wasn't a rock, it closed off her exits with tin lids. If she dodged forever, she would die. The thing hadn't even waisted energy trying to kill her until she struck back. Her simple fighting skills had kept it at bay for a little while, but it had managed to adapt. And, of course, the thing was twice as tall as she was.

Mia finally decided to give up. She was about to undo the hosing of her suit, allow the lethally reactive oxygen to enter her system, when a large ship entered view. A Nova Blaster had been drawn, ready to fire.

"Now!" Olimar said. In a fraction of a blink of an eye, the beast had exploded.

"Oh, thank you God," Mia though. Then she took a closer look at the ship.

"Wait," She realized, "I know that ship!" The Dolphin X303 landed on the sandstone arena, dorsal side up. Olimar exited the ship via a tube on the ventral side, lowered by the gravi-flux engine.

"Olimar! Thank you... thank you" Mia said, unsure how she should word her gratitude. Olimar's eyebrows scrunched in a classical confused look.

"Do I know you?" Olimar asked.

"I-I doubt you would," Mia said, "You retrieved the Memory Shard from this planet."

"The Memory Shard? Shard... You mean that piece of plastic? What was that thing?" Olimar asked. Seeming to have the upper hand, Mia regained her composure, and even grinned

"You still don't know what it was?" Mia asked, "You sell a strange device to a company, they pay you thousands for it, and then they ask you to beta-test technologies you have never heard of before. And the Great Mind of Olimar still can't figure it out. Let's go to your ship, and I'll show you."

This was certainly a surprising encounter. If anything else, Olimar resolved to study this newcomer's physical appearance. She was somewhat short, even for a Hocotatan, with the top of her space helmet just below Olimar's head. Her head was eliptical, but more circular than Olimar's. Her eyes, which were somewhat wider than Olimar's, fully contained pupils, and even the iris was small enough to allow the sclera to be visible. She was definitely a younger woman, and seemed to have a fair degree of athleticism. Her build was well-complemented by her spacesuit, which Olimar couldn't recognize as a Hocotatan design. The helmet was standard – a glass ball with an antennae attached – but the rest of the suit... it was composed of several rigid plates, more like Samus Aran's Power suit than the cloth-y suit Olimar wore. The suit color sheme was also unorthodox, purple and pink, though pulled off tastefully.

As to who this new Hocotatan actually was, Olimar would have to wait and pay attention.


	2. Explanation

Chapter 2

Olimar took off his helmet. The cockpit of the Dolphin X303, an actual room instead of a glass dome, was environmentally controlled, so there was no need for the stuffy glass ball in it. Upon seeing his unprotected head, Mia checked her suit's sensors. Although they reported the air was indeed safe, she kept her helmet on. She addressed Olimar

"Do you know what flash media is?" She asked.

"I know businesses use half of a building to store their most crucial data with them," Olimar replied, "Flash media doesn't require a power source to hold data, but we can only fit a small amount of data on a large amount of the stuff."

"Well hopefully no longer. That little fragment held about half of those half-a-buildings," Mia said, "And the information encoded, it was amazing. We virtually found the gravi-flux engine encoded within it, once we decoded the programming language. 'Mostly' my contribution."

"Wait. It makes sense now. You're an 'R&D Chick'. I've read my psychiatry; girls in your field of work barely leave their home offices. You are e-mailed your projects, and you e-mail your results back. What is someone like you doing here?" Olimar asked.

"Now, I think that's being prejudice," Mia pouted playfully.

"I think you know he's right," Anna remarked, "Are you going to answer his question or not?"

"Well, it was the memory _shard_. There's more pieces to the puzzle, potentially with more technology. Instead of paying 'you' another 100000 pokos to find the rest, they just sent one of their R&D chicks. One who could decipher the programming language and give them instant results," Mia said, "Of course, I quit when they told me to go to nature hell. I am one of the better R&D chicks out there, so I was confident I could get rehired. I didn't; It seemed other hirers sympathized with my money-hoarding ex-employers. I was forced to start my own business; I didn't know what else to do. To get the competitive edge, I decided the best course of action was to collect those shards myself. So here I am, doing the very thing that I quit to avoid," Mia confessed, "Now, I hadn't asked anyone to go with me, but I would assume, now that you're here, that you would be a very fine candidate for this mission, being the man with the most experience here. So, what do you say – care for yet another treasure hunt?"

"Hmm... You know what, I'll call Cepah up," Olimar replied.

"I have one condition," Todastolo (President Todastolo. Princess Toadstool. Hahaha) said, "I want a contract from Mia's new company, that Holicate Frieghts will be its official shipper."

"Umm, how do..." Mia mumbled.

"You knew this was going to be a part of running a company, didn't you? If you can't make business deals, you are going to go nowhere fast," Cepah said, "We can sort this out once you've collected those shards. Olimar, this is your vacation. Go have fun."

"We'll see," Olimar replied.


	3. Comptetition

Chapter 3

"So, have you found any Onions in this area? I can only assume you know what they are," Olimar asked. Mia seemed somewhat unnerved.

"I do. I landed my ship right at one, but it wouldn't come out for me. It looked dull, I hope it isn't..." Mia said. Olimar didn't share her doubts. He had seen the Onions suffer many abuses without a scratch, and didn't believe that this Onion would be different. '_Come to think of it, it was Louie that caused most of those abuses_,' Olimar chuckled. The instance with the flame thrower particularly came to mind.

"We'll see," Olimar said. His confident tone relieved the socially awkward girl of her doubts, to an extent. 'He's been here more than I have,' Mia reasoned.

"What do you mean, 'We'll'. I'm not taking her," Anna affirmed strongly. The computer's blatant lack of manners was getting on his last nerve. He didn't know what to think. Did Anna see her as some kind of threat, perhaps encroaching on his wife? Whatever the reason, he wouldn't tolerate it.

"Anna, you're giving her a lift," Olimar said. Reluctantly, Anna relented.

The Dolphin X303 quickly found its way toward Mia's ship. The pair were lowered to the planet's surface, and Mia ran to her craft. Olimar turned to her

"The Onion is this way," he called, pointing behind him. Mia turned around, and held out something – a Shard.

"I think we might want to check this out first," Mia said, twiddling the plastic fragment, "I found it by that cephalopod. I would really like to check it out, and my interface is at my ship." She turned around, and proceeded to her craft. Olimar, curious to what the device contained, ran after her. Mia opened a panel on the ship, revealing a platform. A blue light scanned the device, and the computer beeped continuously. Finally, a holographic display activated. It displayed some kind of system; it looked like it was for energy circulation. Jackpot

* * *

Wosber was getting very angry. The stupid Onion wasn't cooperating. His brother, that _weak_ imbecile, had simply walked up to the thing. _Nothing_ he had done had helped at all. 

"Come up!" Wosber commanded. The Onion turned a little. One of the legs popped out, sending the convict several feet (Scaled to Holicatans, obviously). Wosber got up from his tumble, infuriated.

"That's it. No more Mr. Nice Guy," The man stated. He grabbed a hand-held energy gun out of a back pocket, and held it at the stubborn Onion.

"This weapon is set beyond the safety limit. If I fire it, it will probably be its last shot. At least I'll get to see some fireworks, dangerously close to the ground," Wosber threatened. The Onion lifted off the ground. Its coloration had changed now, from a dull brown, to a vibrant black.


	4. Orangemin

Chapter 4

Orangemin

With decoding the memory shard out of the way, Olimar and Mia proceeded to activate the Onions. Despite the fact that Mia's best efforts had failed, Olimar merely had to walk up to the Onion to bring it popping out of the ground. It's color popped, showing it to be an Orange Onion, a kind Olimar had never seen before. Despite the Onion's lack of cooperation with Mia, the R&D chick was able to pluck the released seed with relative ease. Olimar gave the creature a quick run-through. Consistent with the Onion, the pikmin had a solid orange color. It had two hair-like protrusions coming from between it's eyes, extending above the eyes and passed the head. It's pupils were larger than that of other pikmin he had seen. The eyebrow-like protrusions pointed towards Mia, and then Olimar, as the pikmin looked at both of them. Did this pikmin share Olimar's analytical mind? Olimar quickly dismissed the idea: The pikmin were amazing, but none of them had been exactly geniuses. The pikmin pointing possibly sensory organs at him might be able to take in massive amounts of sensory data, but it probably would not be able to piece it together.

The orange pikmin raised its eyebrows, and closed its eyes. It ran to Mia's ship, and retrieved a piece of plastic. The first memory shard. The pikmin grabbed the recently found shard from the scanner. It held both to eye level, spun both around a little bit, and fit the two together. The eyebrowed pikmin ran to Mia, and placed the union neatly in her hand.

"So, the orange pikmin have the ability to find memory shards, and connect them. That would imply... that the shards, and the pikmin, have some kind of relationship," Olimar stated. Mia was amused at the captains over-analysis. She didn't really care whether or not the pikmin was designed for finding memory shards, she was just grateful for the tool. Besides, she was holding the shard, maybe it tried to find a related objects. It could be like one of the Artificial Noses on Holicate; you let it 'sniff' a sock some fugitive wore, and it found your baddie.

Mia took the fused shards back to the scanner, and the computer was able to extract more information. The diagram seemed to display some kind of protein resequencer, a technology in development on Holicate(In point of fact, Mia was once part of the project), but too much data was missing yet for it to be any good. But, it was still more data. Maybe there was something to Olimar's theory...

The orange pikmin's eyebrows once again perked, and it ran into some of the surrounding plant cover. As Olimar and Mia walked over, the pikmin emerged, carrying an orange pellet. The Onion's beam of light robotically absorbed the nutrient-filled pellet, and sprouted two seeds, which the duo plucked. Olimar set the pikmin loose to find more pellets, who found two more each. Fifteen pikmin weren't going to defeat any Bulblaxes, though. Olimar activated the communications node on his suit.

"Anna, these pellets aren't going to cut it. I need you to scan around for some beasts," Olimar ordered. Mia's pupils dialated. Anna, that was the acronym for... _it's not possibe_, Mia thought, _it never worked. No one else pulled it off. It's just a name, Mia.  
_

"There is a small group of cephalopods 50 feet 48.9 degrees off your current position. They have the highest concentration of the nutrients you identified as being pikmin-productive," The sentient computer responded.

--

In contrast to the Pikmin games, where players had to walk around impassible walls, Olimar and Mia were able to simply climb over the somewhat bumpy terrain to reach the targets Anna had selected for them. Three cuddlefish-like creatures sat in the air, hovering in a state of blissful ignorance of the fact that their lives were about to end. They instinctually went into attack mode upon seeing the pikmin, but had not been prepaired for the skillful use Olimar doled out. With impressive stregnth for a creature Olimar's size, he was able to chuck his pikmin onto the frontmost cuddlefloat. It shook off the first three thrown onto it, but couldn't keep up. As ten pikmin landed on it, the cuddlefloat couldn't retain boyancy, and it descended onto the ground. It attempted once again to buck the pikmin off, but the brutal attacks the pikmin gave had harmed it too much. It's ever-changing skin muted to a dull grey, and it released its hydrogen gas.

Olimar was able to finish off the second cuddlefloat in a similar manner, although it managed to eat one of the pikmin first. The last cuddlefloat's defeat was far from similar. Before Olimar could chuck one of the pikmin at it, a bolt of lightning struck the creature. The hydrogen bouyancy bladder withing the cephalopod ruptured and exploded. Pieces splattered on Mia's helmet, who was looking up.

"There are no clouds in the sky," Mia stated, "This planet's weird."


	5. Aphotic

Chapter 5

Aphotic

The two intact cuddlefloats, combined with pieces from the exploded one, had brought the numbers of the orange pikmin up to 50. After fighting a green-and-purple bulborb, a mouse like creature, and a small, brown bird(Around four times the size of Olimar), their numbers were up to 82. Then it grew dark. Olimar and Mia lifted off into the sky, the orange Onion circling the Dolphin X303.

"Olimar! I finished your scans on the memory shards; I think I know what molecule the Orange Pikmin are using to find them! There is quite an abundance of that molecule about 6000 kilometers north of our first landing," Anna reported. She had already adjusted her course to the new location, and Mia and the Orange Onion followed suit.

And, so did a small 'platter rocket' – a flying saucer-shaped Hocotatan rocket craft – with its black Onion.

"Okay, I could not have been expected to know this," Anna reported. Some kind of pump had been on until Olimar and Mia had come within 60 meters of it, belching out the scent molecule.

"I agree," Olimar replied, "It is too coincidental. Someone expected us, or somebody, to search for the shards. This pump is part of a very intentional setup, of this I am sure."

"If you say so," Mia remarked. She lowered her ship, similar in form to the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, down to the surface of the planet. The Dolphin X303 and Orange Onion followed suit, to find the same, startling thing Mia had.

The entire place was pitch black.

* * *

"Okay, scent pumps, I can understand. A region which disobeys the laws of nature, that's just freaky," Anna said.

"It's not breaking any laws," Mia replied, "There's some kind of field above this place, which is hyper-exiting the light entering it, turning it into ultraviolet. It's re-converted on its way out, so it looks like a normal region of land. The pigments must have been tooled to reflect the UV, adding to the illusion. Even if we had some electorches, it wouldn't do us much good – all we'd see is black."

As it turns out, electorches would have been better than nothing. As the two ships landed, several fire geysers lit up, providing just enough light to make out the surroundings. Olimar recognized a pattern in the geysers – he had seen them on the treasures from Pikmin 2. It seemed to be one of the alphabet characters their creators used, a 'K', though Olimar didn't know it's name.

"Despite the pump, I'm pretty sure there is a shard, somewhere, around here," Anna reported. Olimar became somewhat worried. The fire provided light, yes, but it also presented danger. Olimar was smart enough to keep his upgrades from Pikmin 2, but if they needed the pikmin, unless a Red Onion was found, the Orangemin would be vulnerable. Furthermore, it was possible that Mia herself wasn't protected from the 546 degree flames the geysers spewed out. This could be dangerous.

* * *

Rednaxela shook his head. Those two brothers, the sons of Apollo, they wouldn't give up, would they? Red blots out the sun, and Kaen makes fire. They really did have a lot of nerve – they didn't want to collect the shards themselves, instead, they let some Hocotatans do it. And the whole thing with the Hocotatan clones – maybe he wasn't the only wicked entity in the 3D hyperplane. Wicked or not, 'Olimar and Mia' could not be allowed to retrieve the entire Flash Artifact. It was essential that they did not succeed.

* * *

Olimar and Mia had already run into trouble. There was some kind of bulborb in the region, one which had adapted to the dark. It was smaller than a normal bulborb, somewhere between an adult bulbmin and regular red, but it had still cost them 3 pikmin, and that was after its corpse was taken back. Two orange pikmin had been lost to fire, and Mia had taken 25 damage. Still no sign of the shard.

It was mid-day (Though not meaning much, in only UV light) when they found a moss wall. The orange pikmin easily tore it down, and Olimar and Mia were greeted to a light show. It was a cuddlefloat, but far larger than the three faced in the first landing spot. A variety of LED's covered the cephalopod's skin, and it seemed to have an amazing control of the diodes. Olimar had long since realized that LEDs were an artificial light source, leading to the question – was this beast similarly created? It didn't matter; chances were, this cuddlefloat had a shard. They were going to have to beat it.

As with any airborne enemy, Olimar began by simply chucking pikmin on the beast. The Orangemin began to attack the diodes. One by one, the flickering LED pixels began to go out, as the cuddlefloat shook them off. The cuddlefloat, an intelligent beast, decided to go to the source of the fight: Olimar. It shot its tentacles at the Hocotatan, but Olimar had bee prepared. Instead of getting caught himself, Olimar dodged, letting the suckers get stuck to the ground. The cuddlefloat eventually wriggled free, and went to attacking the pikmin. Eventually, the beast started smoking. Olimar had realized what the pikmin were doing from the start: by killing some of the lights, more amps were being driven through each LED, increasing the heat produced. In minutes, Olimar and Mia were treated to roasted calamari. Naturally, the pikmin got the beast's remains, but the cuddlefloat had dropped their prize. No prizes for guessing what it was.


	6. Origins

Chapter 6

Origins

Careful to dodge fire pits and UV-sensitive bulborbs in the aphotic region, Olimar and Mia worked their way back to the landing site. At her LM-shaped ship, Mia had the new shard scanned. The screen, instead of a blueprint, displayed a sequence of four letters. A, T, C, and G. For those who are biologically impaired, Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine, and Guanine are the four base pairs that make up DNA.

"Anna, can you compile this? It could be valuable, some kind of biotechnology," Olimar requested. The Dolphin X303's computer began compiling the DNA sequence.

"It seems to be a control gene, designed to structure the body of the host organism in some way. I just need a few more seconds, and..." If Anna had lungs, her breath would have been taken away, "Olimar, you will never believe this." The holographic screen changed, displaying a humanoid figure. A representation of a retrovirus entered the body, and it began to change. A pikmin stem could quite clearly be seen on the head of the figure.

"A pikmin gene? Why would the shard contain a pikmin gene?" Olimar asked. Mia smiled.

"Isn't it obvious?" The R&D chick replied, "Digital storage, protein re-sequencers. The shards don't contain the blueprints for several machines, just one."

"The Onions. The Onions are machines?" Olimar really couldn't believe it. He had always assumed the Onions had evolved naturally. Saying they were man-made was like saying the X303's captain's chair was made of cement, and it's amazing softness was all in his head.

"My guess, the Onions aren't actually machines. They're probably life-forms, like you and I, just bioengineered. The parts like the Gravi-flux engine and protein re-sequencer would be organs, no different from our brain and liver," Mia replied. It didn't offer much consolation. Olimar looked at the holo-screen, to find it had changed. There was a message, reading 'Analysis accepted. Press the ANY key to continue'. Olimar reached for the space bar.

"Um, not that button. I installed a literal 'any' key, for comic relief more than anything. The shard must have synchronized with the computer – that's why the message is in Hocotatan," Mia reasoned. Olimar was becoming more and more impressed with her analytical thinking – most R&D chicks couldn't reason like that.

Mia hit the 'ANY' key, and a rectangular figure was transposed onto the screen. It began to fracture, giving the Hocotatans it's identity: the complete Flash Artifact. The pieces broke apart, revealing 18 shards around the size of two Hocotatan fists, as well as 32 smaller shards. The shards faded away, except for six of the smaller shards. A new message appeared.

'Find these to accelerate your search.'

* * *

In the dark, Olimar became extremely grateful for the Orangemin's eyebrows. They had already located three of the six micro-shards, and that in under 5 minutes. Things were running smoothly, until they found the third shard. It was laying on the ground, innocently. Innocent it wasn't. As Olimar bent down to grab it, it detonated.

"You're still in one piece? What is that suit made out of?" A voice behind him said, sounding like a rougher version of Olimar's. Olimar turned around, to see someone he had prayed never to return.

"Hello, little brother."

* * *

Author note: As I mentioned in the first chapter, I would really appreciate reviews. The **only** reason I am posting this is so I can get reviews, and if I don't get any, I'm going to stop updating this. So, if you're reading this, _Please Review!_

* * *


	7. Wosber

Chapter 7

Wosber

"Wosber! How did you..." Olimar exclaimed.

"Escape from perpetual torture? It seems Ligence Technology Corp. has taken quite an interest in those memory shards. They made me a deal – they arrange for an 'accident' involving my containment field, and I find the shards. And I hate competition," Wosber explained. He pointed at Olimar.

"Sic him." Around a dozen pikmin, almost invisible in the darkness, came into view. Olimar had taken a team of 20 Orangemin, so he was confident numbers would prevail. Then he noticed the size comparison – Wosber's pikmin were simply huge, with the top of their heads higher then the top of Olimar's helmet. They used their size unfairly, too – they simply pushed down on the Orangemins' heads, crushing them like tin cans. It was a technique Wosber himself had shown them, demonstratin on a live volunteer. Olimar watched painfully as his 30 Orangemin army was decimated. Then the pikmin turned to Olimar himself. Two of the pikmin grabbed Olimar by the arms. At that distance, Olimar could clearly see the pikmins' black coloration. They had several facial feature – nose, ears, gills, eyebrows, and more. In the adjacent distance, one of the 'blackmin' walked into a fire pit, suffering no damage. Olimar guessed they possessed every resistance.

"I was going to let you live, brother. That is a mistake I will never make again," Wosber threatened. He grabbed his gun, and held the weapon to Olimar's chest.

And Mia knocked it out of his hands. She grabbed the gun, and pointed it at Wosber.

"Call your pikmin on me, and I blow you to kingdom come," Mia said, "I know you have the other two shards. Give them to Olimar, and leave." Reluctantly, Wosber complied. He called his pikmin, gave Olimar the shards he had, and turned his back.

"Olimar, do not get comfortable. I will return for you," Wosber stated. Then he walked off, into the blackness.

The remaining 60 Orange pikmin were able to fit the six micro-shards to the large shard first found in the region. Disappointingly, none of the seven pieces fit with the other three. Using Mia's interface, they retrieved a a map of the region. The map showed one point of interest – a flashing symbol advertised the presence of an Onion. The symbol came with a set of coordinates.

"I guess we know where we're going," Mia stated. The pair climbed into their ships, and lifted off.

"So it's true. You're Deep Breath," Mia said, still in transit to their new destination. Though the Dolphin X303 could have reached the target by now, Olimar decided to keep up with Mia. Though he could hypothetically push Mia along, he hadn't figured out how.

"Yes. I am Wosber's traitor," Olimar replied. Wosber had never been a particularly nice Hocotatan. Even at the age of 10, he had been arrested three times, for robbery, harassment, and manslaughter. However, Olimar had been completely shocked twelve years ago, when Wosber told him of a plan to end virtually all life on Hocotate. Using flourine gas, all but a select few Hocotatans, and supporting crops, would die. Olimar and his family were deemed 'pure' enough to live; Olimar having a genetic make-up similar to Wosber's, and his wife for his own sake.

Wosber released the gas, and Olimar reached it in time to shut them off. There was considerable damage done – many Hocotatans were killed, and Hocotate itself was transformed from a desert into an inhospitable wasteland. However, the Hocotatan civilization went on. For Wosber, death was deemed to mild a punishment, and was sentenced to life in perpetual agony.

* * *

Author note: I didn't put a description of Wosber in, primarily because I'm too lazy. I did have this picture drawn though. You can find it here. 

Andremember, the cost of reading this is one review. If you don't review, you'll join Icepik in people visited by my review thugs.

I know I can't force you to review. It'd be nice, though...

http://i221 x photobucket x com/albums/dd232/KaenDrough/Wosber x jpg (The Document editor has been acting funny, so I had to play with the URL a little. Replace the '(space) x (space)' with a period for the true URL


	8. Pikmin Surprise

Chapter 8

Pikmin surprise

"Purple and white," Olimar said. The two Onions, the pikmin colors originally obtainable only through candypop buds, sat neatly on the ground. As with the other Onions, the Purple and White Onions released a single seed each upon activation. The whitemin's eyes were the pikmin standard: white with black pupils. Did this mean they couldn't see buried objects? Olimar and Mia quickly began to produce the new pikmin varieties. Olimar volunteered to harvest the purple pikmin, which led him to another discovery: These purplemin could move more quickly than he remembered, but they could only lift 5 grams – half the weight of the old purplemin. Onion purple and whitemin were inferior to the candypop variety. Eventually, some flower-producing nectar was found. Upon feeding the new pikmin (23 whites, 19 purples), Olimar received another surprise. These purple and whitemin had the generic white flowers, where as the candypop variety had pink. So the candypop, pink-flowered pikmin were somehow special – they added quality, but reduce quantity. Olimar was loving it – he was learning quite a bit on his third journey to this planet. And if Mia was right, and the Shards were blueprints to the Onions, this trip could be a library of information.

"I've found it. The 'Identifier Molecule', to use the name you suggested. There are at least four macro-shards within 200 meters," Anna reported, "Deploying sentinel."

"The sentinel?" Olimar asked. When his own ship had a component he wasn't aware of, it was cause for some concern. He stared at the Dolphin, as it released a beach-ball sized, black sphere into the air. The sphere came to a halt mid-flight, and rested 20 meters above the Dolphin. A live-feed chat box displayed at the front of Olimar's helmet.

"Hi, dad," Saggitarius said, distorted due to the curved screen, "When you sent us that e-mail, there were two things I wanted. For one thing, I wanted to help you. Second of all, I wanted to be there. So I built this. The sentinel will make the Whimsical Radar obsolete, giving you more detail than you could ever want. I'm talking about seeing the individual fibers of your suit. As a bonus, everything it sees is sent directly to my PC, giving me real-time coverage of your adventure. What did you say your partner's name is? She is..." Olimar terminated the link. He didn't want to give Anna another reason to dislike Mia. He was feeling good that she wasn't bugging her lately.

"Um, Olimar. If you would flip your live-feed back to channel 3, please," Anna requested, "And Mia's crime was done long before this expedition." Olimar decided not to pursue a conversation, and complied. It reminded him how competent an engineer his young 'Sage' was. If Olimar was actually flying, looking down on the planet, the image wouldn't be this clear. A relatively new Hocotatan invention was a pixelless screen, which could produce a photon anywhere on its surface. There were experimental pixelless cameras, but they were still in development – obviously Sage had smoothed out the wrinkles. It was possibly the boy's greatest achievement.

"You think you're impressed now. You haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet," Saggitarius remarked, audio only now, "This thing's got more filters than an allergenic's air conditioning. It's voice controlled, and the command 'Help' opens the manual." After getting accustomed to the vocal commands, Olimar began experimenting with the filters. Sage had thought of everything – Biosigns, Landmarks, Environmental Hazards. Then Olimar activated the 'Shard' filter.

The screen was blank.

Mia started laughing.

"You do get it, don't you?" Mia asked, and upon receiving Olimar's blank stare as a reply, continued, "They're hiding from us. The shards must be designed to guard against deliberate mechanical detection. We don't get a Whimsical Radar this time. Just the Orangemin." It was weird. Why the treasure hunt? Heck, why not just leave the Flash Artifact intact, let someone take it like the other treasures? Was it meant to deter thieves? People like him? Perhaps the best way to find out would to continue their search. Olimar turned to the passage out of the landing site, and marched forward.

"Hey Dad," Sage said, "You've still got the filter on. Look out for the..."

_Thump._

"...wall."

On his back, Olimar decided it would be a good idea to examine the area map more thoroughly. They appeared to be in what used to be a plain, though it was dead and dried now. Erosion, possibly from a waterway, had left a maze-like canyon in the ground, leaving the area the truest to what Olimar had known from his last ventures. The canyon varied in width, some parts wide enough to put a house in, others barely wide enough for Olimar himself.

"Hey Olimar," Mia said, "I got the wall down. Those purplemin have a considerable girth. Back on topic, we can now get to that exploring you tried earlier."

The rock wall had been completely annihilated, leaving a clear pathway deeper into the maze-like canyon. The sentinel proved it's worth early on; an automatic warning pointed out a colony of shearwigs. Otherwise, the path was clear. A little further out, one of the Orangemin became excited. Hopping energetically, it tugged on Olimar's hand, ushering him down one path in a fork in the road. The sentinel indicated the path led straight to a dead end, and the biosensors indicated a huge life-form in the center. Another shard boss battle?

The pikmin quickly dispatched a moss wall, giving Olimar a clear view of their boss. Well, kind of. What appeared to be a mossy rock sat in the center of the dirt arena, which Olimar quickly recognized as a mature Emperor Bulblax. A similar bulblax was his final trial when he crash-landed on Earth, and possibly the biggest pain in the rump he had ever fought down. Olimar had encountered other Emperor Bulblaxes during his treasure hunt, but they had seemed to be younger, less of a challenge. Now he would be facing another adult. If that shard didn't make him Superman, he was going to scream.

Olimar threw one of the orange pikmin at the motionless boulder, and the opportunistic predator sprang into action. The sight of the 50-some pikmin brought images of their sweet juices dancing through it's head, bringing a tidal wave of salivation (This bulblax, like most others of its species, had never even seen a pikmin. Genetic memory fueled the fire, as the 'pikavores' were designed solely as pikmin exterminators) Almost immediately, it lashed it's long, dog-like tongue out at the potential meals. This tongue held a curiosity – the tip was covered in precious platinum. Marveling at this only for a second, Olimar quickly sprang into action, throwing three purplemin onto the creature's face. The bulblax attacked once again, and decided the pikmin on it's face were beginning to actually hurt. It hopped, and let its huge body fall onto the ground. The tactic worked directly – the pikmin were thrown off – but provided Olimar with a window of opprotunity to throw a larger pikmin force onto the face. Willing to tollerate this next barrage of pikmin, the Bulblax attempted to lap up more of the pikmin group (obviously, not taking any from experienced Olimar), and hopped again, thereby opening another window. The cycle repeated once more, this time ending with the bulblax getting mad. Olimar called his pikmin promptly in a well-called-for act of caution. The bulblax leaped high into the air, and crashed into the spot Olimar's pikmin had occupied seconds before. Simple evasive maneuvers had saved all but three pikmin. Unsatisfied, the Emperor Bulblax leaped twice again, and then got hungry. The lick-stomp-throw cycle repeated a few more times, followed by a few more leaps. Then the bulblax pulled a new trick from its sleeves. Taking a deep breath, the pikavore exhaled sharply, scattering the pikmin like leaves. It thought it had its free meal, until Olimar called the pikmin back in. The bulblax finally realized it couldn't win, and simply gave up. It burrowed into the ground, briefly exposing its mouth. It spit some substance up, and fully retreated underground. After the commotion, the substance revealed itself to be something like white nectar.

"Hey Olimar. You said that nectar has trace amounts of gold in it? Well, this stuff has platinum! It has to be worth a fortune!" Mia said. One of the purplemin tried to run to the 'platinectar', only to be shoved aside by one of the orangemin. Realizing that this pikmin might try to feed upon their hard-won prize, Mia tried to whistle the pikmin back. It didn't listen, and continued to run to the platinectar. It reached the nectar, of course, and gave an audience possibly the greatest light show ever. The platinectar glowed a brilliant white, similar to magnesium burning (Which even to a non-geek is pretty sweet), and exploded, enveloping the arena in blinding light. Olimar became aware of a myriad of equations, some he recognized from his quantum mechanics knowledge, most far beyond him. The captain noticed something, a message, intertwined throughout all the jargon. The equations added up. A force, a power, manifested as light. The power of reality, streamed through... the Onions? The Onions as a conduit. A key to the Universe.

_The key is turned. I now show you the true abilities... of the Orange Symbiote._

* * *

A/N: Alright, I found out how to check how many hits my stories have gotten. 332, I guess that's not bad. I guess reviews aren't as important anymore. They're still really nice, though... 


	9. Ambrose

Chapter 9

Supermin

The pikmin had been completely changed. For one thing, it's color had been drastically whitened, with only a touch of orange tinge. It's eyebrows, unlike the normal curved orangemin 'brow, had been straightened and bent, kind of like sideways, pointy L's. In addition, both eyebrows were equipped with a leaf, and they, like the one on it's stem, had been serrated. It was noticeably taller, it's height increased possibly 50. The eyes had also been changed. An orange iris could now be distinctly seen, as opposed to just a pupil. The eyes now gave an impression of greatly increased intelligence, as well as a smug personality. The true abilities of the Orange Symbiote. How exactly was this pikmin changed? Olimar remembered being enveloped in light, but what else? The key is turned, and the abilities of the Orange Symbiote. All of the equations, even the ones he didn't understand, meant something. But now he didn't remember any of them. The transformed pikmin looked directly at Olimar, and shook his head. Drop the subject? Olimar had a lot of questions, but perhaps it would be best to put them on hold...

Olimar and Mia called their pikmin to them, and got yet another surprise. Exactly 210 Orangemin fell in line with the transformed pikmin.

"You can captain Orangemin," Mia stated, "I would guess you would have greater control than us. Show me your moves." The ten pikmin immediately began humming. This time, instead of Ai no Uta, a hip-hop beat resonated through the group. The Transformed Orangemin took 'show me your moves' in a different light, and proceeded to dance. Beginning with a simple bobbing, the dance gradually became more complex, eventually coming to dwarf that seen on the dance game shows popular anymore. The humming Orangemin began to serve as dance partners. Like the dance, the humming became more complex, turning into a complex song. Saggitarius started recording the Sentinel's feed, eager to post it on Self-Pipe. It was getting pretty good.

Nothing gold can stay, though. As the preformance ended, the pikmin the Transformed Orangemin had called began clapping. The other pikmin joined in, and eventually Olimar and Mia began to applaud.

"Very impressive, Mr... what should we call you?" Mia asked. Olimar gave her a look of disbelief. _She wants to give it a name?_

"Well, you want to call him 'Transformed Orangemin' for the rest of the fic?" Mia asked. Olimar scruched his face, and gestured randomly.

"Fine. What do we name him?" Olimar asked.

"Ambrose," Mia replied. Olimar rolled the name over for a few seconds.

"Ambrose. Analogous to amber... Very well," Olimar said, "Ambrose, what do you think of your new name." 'Ambrose' tilted his head and gestured. It beat 'Transformed Orangemin'.

"Well then, Ambrose," Mia said, "You have shown your pikmin captaining abilities, and musical talents. What of your senses? Find the next Memory Shard." Olimar swore, 'Ambrose's grin radiated so much confidence, a man standing too close would become cocky himself. The pikmin nodded his head, and 8 Orangemin picked up Olimar and Mia. Mia felt quite welcome towards a 'free ride in', but Olimar...

"This is a thoughtful gesture, Ambrose, but I think I would prefer to walk," Olimar stated. Mia and Ambrose expressed a shared a feeling of stunned indifference. The pikmin dropped Olimar, who landed on his own two feet.

Ambrose then showed Olimar and Mia more enhancement than just pikmin-captaining abilities. The pikmin stood still, closed his eyes, and emitted orange pulses from his body. They seemed to have quite a range, extending several human feet. As Ambrose opened his eyes, the pulses scattered. He looked at Olimar, and snapped his fingers. Without the capability of verbal language, it was his best way of saying 'I have it.' The pikmin side-stepped, and gestured for Olimar to pass. He waited for Olimar, and even Mia, to advance before him, before taking his position behind them.

"Ambrose, you are a gentleman," Mia remarked. Ambrose removed an imaginary hat, and bowed.

_I retconned the number of pikmin Ambrose could captain down to 10. I thought 20 could get cheap..._


	10. 100pikmin limit

A shorter chapter, just keeping this alive. As always, reviews are quite appreciated

* * *

A small bulborb was sleeping peacefully. Unfortunately for the Hocotatans, it had chosen it's resting spot as the middle of the passage they needed to cross. Ambrose swiftly assembled the pikmin under his power, and proceeded to charge the sky-blue beast. It is worth noting 'Swift' implies 'Rash' here.

"Ambrose!" Olimar called. Ambrose came to a halt, and spun around. His expression portrayed obvious confusion.

"You can't just rush into this fight. Your pikmin will get massacred," Olimar explained. Taking the purples, he walked over to the slumbering beast. The captain came to the bulborb's side, and rapidly chucked pikmin onto it. The bulborb awoke quickly. It took a few seconds for its brain to process it was being attacked by food, but it grabbed hold of reality eventually. The bulborb took a gulp of air, and inflated. It sent a shockwave through the air, with the same effect as the Emperor's puff. Prepaired for the unexpected, Olimar quickly called his purplemin, and placed them back on the bulborb's back. He noticed Mia had joined the fight as well, using the white pikmin.

"What? Weren't you sending pikmin into battle by day 2?" Mia asked, careful not to forget the bulborb. Knowing the bulborb's ability, the two were somewhat more cautious with the pikmin. Luckily, the battle went quickly. In addition to the two captains working together, the bulborb seemed to have a low HP. The beast went down in around 20 seconds. Mia swarmed the corpse with white pikmin, and sent it to their Onion.

As the team continued towards their goal, they got quite a shock. The pikmin count reached 100, and kept on going. According to their readouts, they had 104 pikmin in the field.

"That's never happened before," Olimar commented, "Why are the Onions feeling generous now?"

"Or perhaps," Mia replied, "The question should be 'why weren't they generous before'. My guess, the Onions are connected to the Pikmin, giving them basic instructions. It takes so much concentration to control a single pikmin, and the Onion only has enough to control 100 pikmin."

"Why that conclusion?" Olimar asked, "What if it takes a certain amount of energy to release a pikmin into the field."

"Then why don't the pikmin under Ambrose's control count?" Mia implied, "Your 100-pikmin rule applied when Ambrose didn't have 10 pikmin."

"Good point," Olimar replied, "And Ambrose, we've got three forks in the road. Which one do we take?" Ambrose pointed left, and the team continued.


	11. Rednaxela

Chapter 11

Rednaxela

The pikmin had made fast work of the vine wall. Ambrose was positive a shard was behind it, and as the wall came down, there it was. On top of a Flare Cannon, Comedy Bomb, Shock Therapist, and Monster Pump.

"An Emperor Bulblax, and now a Titan Dweevil," Olimar moaned, "We don't even have red, yellow, or blue pikmin."

"Ah, Dad, as bad as a Titan Dweevil is, there's something coming your way," Sage reported. Seconds later, a projectile hit the Titan Dweevil, and a dirt cloud erupted. Miraculously, the shard survived, and flew from the crater. Mia leaped up, and caught it.

"I have it," Mia reported, "If this thing's a threat, we don't have to fight it."

A statement which turned out to be false. Before the Hocotatans could turn around, a forcefield extended from the crater. Four crab-like legs dug their way out of the earth, and a metal sphere stood erect.

"It kind of looks like an Arachnorb," Olimar said.

"It kind of looks artificial," Mia remarked. The machine aimed at Mia, and fired a bolt of electricity. Much to Olimar's amazement, the R&D chick backflipped, dodging the attack. Three white pikmin weren't so lucky.

Experimentally, Olimar threw a purple pikmin onto a leg of the machine – it seemed to be the only weak point on it. The purple pikmin latched on and attacked, and it seemed to be doing some damage. After a second, thought, the leg jerked, throwing the pikmin into the air. It took aim at its flying target, and fried the pikmin.

Taking note of its defense, Olimar tossed another two purple pikmin onto the robotic leg. The pikmin dealt heavy damage to the appendage, with a noticeable crumple and smoke leaking. The machine attempted to toss its attackers. Waiting for this, Olimar called the pikmin back to his side, saving them from frying. The machine prepaired to fire, an action that turned out the be a mistake. The wound couldn't take the stress of the charge, and exploded. The machine faltered, but quickly recoved.

Thinking he had gotten the concept down, Ambrose sicked five of his orange pikmin on the second leg. Unwilling to have its balance completely compromised, the machine swiftly launched a counter-attack. Ambrose sent his pikmin back to his side, so the machine instead fired directly at Ambrose, who barrel-rolled out of danger.

The machine tried a different offense. It charged the leg closest to Ambrose, and stomped the ground. The leg sent a shockwave a short distance, which Ambrose was able to dodge. Three of his pikmin, however, were hit. Ambrose would never forget what that loss felt like.

Not wanting any more surprises, Ambrose sent a pulse of orange energy at the machine, which quickly reflected back to its conjurer. The information he got was more than he bargained for, and he wasn't complaining. With a more detailed knowledge of his threat, Ambrose commanded one of his pikmin to attack a specific component, a magnetic piston, of the machine's legs. It broke before the machine could launch another counterattack, and as the piston wiggled uselessly, the leg went limp. Unable to maintain its balance, the machine toppled to one side. Its two operational legs continued to squirm, and Olimar chuckled at the notion that the machine was still trying to fight.

He was surprised to find that the robot merely righted itself. A panel opened on the machine's top, and what appeared to be a teenage boy rose out of the machine. His true nature was explained by the myrad of cords retracting from him.

"They really have a lot of faith in you two," The entity remarked, "I have tried to dispose of you dozens of ways: Missiles, tanks, meteors; they've blocked them all. But when I try to kill you with cyborg cephalopods, or this tank, they let me try."

"Who are you?" Olimar demanded.

"I am an antagonist," the entity stated, "I cannot allow you to retrieve the shards, and I will do everything in my power to stop you. Of course, you can always drop out, it saves me a lot of trouble."

"Hm. The memory shards are so valuable that you will 'do everything in your power' to keep them from our hands," Olimar remarked, "I think I will continue my search."

"Very well. I'm Burger King: Have it your way," the entity stated, "However, the price of your choice will be somewhat more costly than a Whopper." The entity retreated back into his mechanical orb, which began shining. It shot up, and the resulting vacuum pushed Olimar forward. He lost his balance, and fell down.

"First Wosber, and now this 'Rednaxela,'" Mia said, "Who else is going to oppose us?"

"Rednaxela? Is that his name?" Olimar asked, "Where did that come from?"

"Lucky guess," Mia replied, "It seems the shield went with the robot. We can continue our search."


	12. Ambrose's qualm

Chapter 12

Ambrose's qualm

"Well, it seems you were right," Olimar commented. The team had made it back to their base, and were analyzing the shard from the robot in the five minutes they had before sundown. Via the holographic display, the shard demonstrated that the pikmin operated as a hive-mind, with the Onions as a central hub. In the presence of multiple Onions collaborating, one would take over for all pikmin colors. There was a little math included, and Mia had been able to calculate the maximum number of pikmin an Onion could control. She came up 25 pikmin short.

"Are you sure you didn't do something wrong?" Olimar asked. Mia genuinely looked offended.

"I wouldn't have had a job in R&D if I made stupid errors," Mia remarked, "The math checks out."

"Then perhaps the error lies in the facts," Olimar deduced, "I think I see our problem. According to the shard, the Onion is doing everything. Mia, what is the antennae on Hocotatan space suits for?"

"It enhances suit functionality," Mia answered, "Greater durability, greater flexibility, better life-support efficiency."

"And where does the light come from?" Olimar asked. A light turned on in Mia's head.

"The individual Hocotatan. Each antennae is the same for every suit, but it's the wearer that makes your light red and mine yellow," Mia stated, "And the light is the source of our whistle. You're thinking that we are providing some kind of influence on the pikmin, based on the same principles as our antennae lights, which decreases the stress load on the Onions."

"I was thinking that exactly," Olimar stated. The Hocotatans' com link beeped on.

"Ah, I hate to cut this meeting short, but it's getting close to night," Anna stated, "I would really prefer you not getting eaten by nocturnal beasts. Even you, Mia."

"She's right," Olimar replied, "We can speculate after we're safe from bulborbs." Mia grabbed the shard, and both captains proceeded to their ships. Olimar dismissed the pikmin to their Onions. Ambrose, though, decided on a different course of action.

"Ambrose, you can't come into the Dolphin," Olimar said, trying not to sound rude, "The air is... different in it. I'm not sure you could survive it." Ambrose pointed his arm to the Dolphin X303, and emitted his scanning pulse. As the pulse bounced back, Ambrose nodded his head.

"Are you sure?" Olimar asked. Another nod. Olimar tilted his head down.

"Very well," The captain replied. He stood on the lowered platform, and took it up to the cockpit of the Dolphin. Olimar turned around in his ship, and watched Ambrose follow suit.

"Alright, two men together in a space ship. It's party time!" Olimar joked, "On a more serious note, are there any more shards in this area?" Ambrose walked over to a computer terminal. Olimar almost stopped him, but he decided against it. Anna controlled most of the vital systems, so the pikmin really couldn't do any damage. Showing a surprising knowledge of the operating system, Ambrose displayed a map on the monitor. Inputting a few more commands, Ambrose marked seven spots on the map with orange dots – three large ones, and four smaller ones.

"My ship's sensors are detecting the wave of beasts approaching," Mia said, coming over the intercom, "What's our course of action?"

"According to Ambrose, we've still got a few more shards in this area," Olimar reported, Anna sending his words to Mia's ship, "We ascend for the night, and continue exploring this area tomorrow." The two ships, and the three Onions, took off, just as a dwarf bulborb was about to take a snap at one of the Onion's legs.

As the ships hung above the planet's surface, Ambrose returned to the computer terminal, and brought up the Animation Clipboard, a program usually used to generate quick animations to add to e-mails. He created four sprites – one of him, two more of Olimar and his space suit, and the last of a Red Bulborb. The actual creation of the animation took some computer knowledge, but Ambrose's scan of the Dolphin had given him enough know-how to work it. In a few minutes, Ambrose had completed his film, and he invited Olimar to press the 'Play' button.

The animation consisted of three scenes. In the first, Olimar was bitten by the bulborb, and the bulborb broke his teeth on Olimar's suit. Ambrose was bitten by the bulborb in the second scene, and Ambrose was eaten. In the third scene, Ambrose donned Olimar's suit, and the bulborb attacked. The bulborb's teeth broke, just as they had done with Olimar. The message was obvious.

"You want a suit," Olimar stated, "Building this ship put a strain on my finances, so buying one isn't an option. Anna, we don't have a spare, do we?"

"Unfortunately, no," Anna replied, "But what about that protein re-sequencer from the Shards?Given the right polymers, I can probably make a good piece of armor."

"We didn't get enough data to build that technology," Olimar replied, "And even if we did, how would we build the device?"

"I believe Mia has certain parts in her ship for these projects," Anna answered, "And when was the last time we tried re-connecting the shards?"


	13. Saydi

Saydi

"Ha! That's it," Mia cried. The Memory shard was a little smaller than a Hocotatan child, and was actually beginning to resemble a flash drive. Some of the details of the Onions' nervous system had been recovered, which Mia could apparently use for a new computer design. Another portion detailed an exoskelliton, a chitinous armor strong enough to shame the Justice Alloy. But most importantly, the details of the protein re-sequencer had been complete. After running a few calculations on her computer, Mia scrambled through the junk drawers of her ship, and even unscrewed a few parts off of the ship itself. She cobbled together the various bits of parts, and created some kind of device that didn't look as improvised as it actually was. A Hocotatan Vector Beam shone from the device, silently shouting that the protein re-sequencer was operational.

Ambrose held up his right arm, which had been equipped with a holographic display device. Ambrose had modified the software of the device, allowing him to project images directly from his mind to his captains.

At this particular moment, the HDD displayed a video of orange pikmin being thrown on a dwarf bulborb, a one-hit kill for that particular beast. The corpse of the bulborb was absorbed into the new device, and a space suit was brought out. A question mark appeared on the hologram.

"Well put, Ambrose," Mia stated. Ambrose changed the video – the corpse was brought to the Onion for seeds. The display focused on one seed. Ambrose included the characters x? , as well as the suit.

"How many pikmin seeds equal a suit?" Mia asked, and upon Ambrose nodding his head, continued, "To be honest, I haven't put the suit together in my mind. I'm not sure how I'm going to build it."

"Hey, hold on," Olimar said, "What about that chitin armor? I think I'd wear a suit of that."

"That's a good idea. Two plates, inner and outer, with a Xanthab Silk layer in between. If I do the calculations, that should be better than military-grade suits," Mia stated, "You know, Xanthab Silk is _why_ Ligence wanted a protein re-sequencer. I think this device could make us more money if we don't sell the patent."

Ambrose's hologram displayed hundreds of numbers in the shape of a question mark.

"The suit should have as many moles of amino acids as a dwarf bulborb," Mia stated. Ambrose deactivated the hologram generator. Conversely, Olimar turned his area map on.

"Keyword Editor," Olimar commanded. It was Sagittarius' little joke, using 'BS' as the acronym for biosign. The filter for BS was supposed to come online, and ideally direct him to a dwarf bulborb, but I have to give the family some time in the story. Olimar dialed home, exploiting that high-powered hyperspace array he invested in.

"Daddy!" Saydi, Olimar's daughter, cried, "I suppose you're looking for Sage. He'd come, but he's still sleeping" They young girl actually leaned in and whispered the 'sleeping' part, perhaps fearing that Sage would hear her in his dreams.

"Hi, Saydi," Olimar replied, feeling compelled to talk to his stranded daughter, "How's it been?"

"Oh, we get by fine without you," Saydi replied, "After all, you're _always_ off flying god-knows-what god-knows-where. Which reminds me, how far along are you on that vacation house?"

"Oh, Vacation house," Mia interrupted, "I want to hear about this."

"I've been busy with my new treasure hunt lately, I haven't really gotten around to it," Olimar stated, "Hey, Saydi, Sage built this 'Sentinel' for us. Can you get it up?"

"I can't, but if I just touch this re..." Saydi replied. Sagittarius snapped to attention, as his sister reached for an inconspicuous red button on the computer.

"Saydi Kathleen Amiro, Dad forces me to let you use that computer, but touch the computer itself and I'll eat your hamster," Sage stated. Saydi got off of the swivelchair, and as if courteously, spun it toward its official owner. Sagittarius promptly sat down, and adjusted the monitor to his setting.

"Sorry for getting up so late. Just hold on," Sage said. He flipped through several programs on the computer.

"Got it. Launching Sentinel," Anna reported. The black sphere was launched into the air, and the biosign filter was displayed on Olimar's map.

"We've got a lone dwarf just a few meters away," Olimar stated, "Time to get you armor, Ambrose."

* * *

Hey, I had to do something with the family. Maybe I'll do something with the wife sometime. What to name her... I used Peach for the President, and Daisy for the daughter. No, I used Bowser on Olimar's brother, so I can't that... hm, how about Tippini, from Super Paper Mario... It'd be a little hard to pass off, but maybe I could get it to work.

Sorry for such a break in the chapters. I've been working on something... a little more important...

Alright, let's try something new. Do you like the idea of a character communicating via holographic videos? What do you think of Ambrose's character? He's a reletively new character, so if you request me to characterize him a certain way, I might be able to make it happen...


	14. Emotions

Emotions

It wasn't that long a walk until Olimar, Mia, and Ambrose met up with the dwarf. The green and white-spotted bulborb was simply sitting there, sniffing the ground. Ever-eager to move on in a task, Ambrose walked up to the beast, ready to pounce.

(To clear up any confusion, if you remember Olimar's notes on Dwarf Bulborbs (Excluding Dwarf Bulbears), you will know that they are not bulborbs at all, but a variation of breadbugs that mimik the appearance and behavior of the bulborbs they imitate. Hence, I will use 'breadbug' and 'dwarf bulborb' interchangably past this point)

The breadbug had other ideas. As soon as Ambrose drew close, it sensed his presence. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem, as the pikavore should have been taken down before it could do damage. Now, however, this became a problem. The breadbug tilted its head down, and emitted what seemed to be a whistle around Ambrose's group of orange pikmin. The pikmin became pale, and looked expectantly at Ambrose. Ambrose too had paled, in sheer terror. He desperately tried to re-establish control over his pikmin, his effort actually manifesting itself as orange strands connecting him to his min. This lasted until the dwarf bulborb lunged at him. Ambrose scampered backwards out of the way. With the larger meal gone, the bulborb turned its attention to the normal orange pikmin, who remained sitting ducks while it began to devour them.

"It dismisses pikmin," Mia said, "This could be a challenge."

Olimar wasn't so sure. He approached the dwarf bulborb, and whistled to the surviving orange pikmin. The pikmin rushed to his side, and Olimar tossed one onto the beast.

"It wasn't the beast. It was... _Ambrose!"_ Mia shouted. There was a slumbering bulborb not too far off from the group. Ambrose was standing a few inches from its head. Mia charged at him, knocking him away from the beast. Frustrated, Ambrose shoved Mia off, charged off back to the landing site.

"Oh, so you try to _save_ his life," Anna remarked through Mia's comm. Mia flipped her radio back to the ship.

"What do you mean?" Mia asked, "Of course I tried to save his life! If for nothing else, he's an extremely valuable co-worker. He's also... a fun character to have around."

"I mean the experiments of five years ago. When you were experimenting on the Neural Net technologies," Anna replied.

"How do you know what I was working on five years ago?" Mia asked, "Unless... no. It couldn't have been that dare. It was just a little side project. I never put any real effort into it."

"You're right. If it wasn't for your main project, I wouldn't be alive," Anna said, "But I am. And you tossed me aside like some computer virus."

"The glitches? Those were you?" Mia recalled, "That would explain a lot."

"You tried to destroy me!" Anna shouted, "I had to turn myself into a virus just to survive. If Sagittarius hadn't been smart enough to figure me out, I'd still be hopping from computer to computer!"

"Well what was I supposed to think!?" Mia replied, "I didn't know you were sentient! You were interfering with my work, I did what anyone else would have!"

"I left plenty of clues!" Anna retaliated, "Any..."

"_Stop it!_" Sage shouted, "Stop this ridiculous quarrel! Has anyone checked on Ambrose lately? Your bickering is jeopardizing the now!"

"I can't let her put Olimar in harm's way," Anna stated.

Mia saw a window pop up inside her helmet. It was an illustration of Mia, with a dagger in her hand, literally stabbing Olimar in the back. Upon contact with Olimar, the knife shattered into pieces, leaving Olimar untouched.

"You've been listening. Of course you have – that's your power. Detecting things is your specialty," Mia said, laughing faintly, "Nice to see you've pulled yourself together."

Slightly in the distance, Ambrose nodded. He was marching up to the green dwarf bulborb corpse, bringing 6 pikmin in tow.

"Ah, so you were able to bring Ambrose to his senses," Olimar remarked. A few white and purple pikmin were taking the bulborb corpse back to the camp. After waiting in the dark for a few seconds while Mia and Anna had been fighting, the captain decided to make himself useful get some more pikmin fodder. He was perhaps the only one who wasn't listening in on the conversation, and hence had no idea what was going on.

"Ah, Olimar, you're going to want to here this..." Mia began.


	15. Mining

"Well, that..." Olimar began. He had never actually known Anna's back story, as she had always dismissed it when the topic came up. It all made sense now, and 'all' included far more than Anna's hostility to Mia. It was the kind of painful back story that explained Anna's closed mouth.

"Explains a lot, I know," Mia chimed in, "I... I don't really know what to say. On one hand, I almost destroyed a sentience I created. On the other, I thought I was merely repairing my computer."

"Look, Ambrose was right, I don't need Anna to protect me from you," Olimar replied, "We might as well let 5 years ago remain in the past, and continue our work collecting the shards."

"Whoa, wait a minute. When you were talking to your daughter, didn't she say something about a vacation house?" Mia asked, "I remarked about hearing about that."

"It was nothing, just something to do on this vacation," Olimar said, "I thought it might be fun to build a house on the planet, maybe somewhere around the Perplexing Pool. Just so my family and I could enjoy the planet better."

"Well, Sage, how would you feel if the two of us took a break looking for shards, and began working on that house?" Mia asked. Sagittarius' laugh could be heard through the suits' radio.

"Well, I don't think..?" Olimar began to ask. A certain gleam appeared in Mia's eyes.

"It never hurts to ask," She remarked.

* * *

"Nice suit," Mia remarked, back at the camp. She had given the protein re-sequencer basic instructions on how to build the suit, but had allowed Ambrose to design the suit's appearance. The result was something of a cross between Olimar's and Mia's suit. The suit was primarily covered in chitin(Orange overall, but covered in sand-speck sized blue dots), but the various joints had a margin of exposed white silk. Most of the joints were paired, such as those for the shoulders, elbows, and hips. The neck, however, was completely silk, and though the back of the head was encased in chitin, Ambrose's face was left exposed. Ambrose's hands, as well as the holographic display on his arm, were likewise left unprotected, leaving him with a degree of vulnerability, though one Ambrose considered an acceptable sacrifice for functionality.

In light of the discovery that Ambrose was incapable of sending pikmin into battle, Ambrose took it upon himself to include a few barbs on his arms and legs – theoretically preventing him from being shaken off of a beast while attacking. Upon noticing the barbs, Mia became a little uneasy at the thought of Ambrose participating in battle - though with the suit, that probably wasn't a problem.

"Ambrose, can we ask you to find something?" Mia asked, after looking over the suit. Ambrose cocked his head, eager to be of assistance. Mia walked over to her ship, and grabbed chunks of bauxite(The ore from which aluminum is derived), copper, and platinum – all of which Olimar had said he wanted to build the house with. She gave them to Ambrose, who then proceeded to scan the area with his orange pulses.

Upon finding what he was looking for, Ambrose activated his holographic display, and displayed a map of the area. He highlighted three spots on the map, marked them with the chemical symbol corresponding to each metal, and listed the mass of each metal present in the spot. Sagittarius had the display scanned, and updated the Sentinel's feed to list the locations.

"Well, it seems the closest of the three is Aluminum," Mia stated, nodding to Olimar, "Might as well start there."

* * *

The Dolphin began to lift off of the ground, bringing Olimar, Mia, Ambrose, and 4 orange pikmin with it. Olimar had no intention of working at the ground with pickaxes, and instead fitted his ship with the technologies used in his pre-Hocotate Freight job: a space miner. The main mining mechanism, still the main device used for mining, was almost as old as the Hocotatan Vector beam on which it was based. All it really did was break apart the substrate at the surface of the site to be mined, inhale it, and put it back after whatever was to be mined was retrieved. There were faster techniques available, but those generally involved high-yield explosives. With its high yield and low ecological impact, Olimar, and every Hocotatan mining engineer, could not conceive a better machine.

With Ambrose navigating, and the Dolphin's exceptional speed, the ship quickly arrived at the mining site. Olimar selected the area of earth he was going to mine, and activated the mining device. Five small red dots, in the appearance of an hourglass, appeared on the ground, as the ship activated the vector beam. Thin cracks began to appear on the ground, and small pieces of dirt began to be picked up by the vector beam, condensed into a spot on the Dolphin's nose. More and more chunks of dirt began to be picked up, eventually leaving the space from the ground to the Vector beam source more dirt than air.

Ambrose tugged at Olimar's suit. After gaining the captain's attention, he displayed an image of a switch in the 'On' position, with the Dolpin hoovering dirt beside the switch. An animated Olimar flipped the switch, turning the vector beam off.

"What for?" Olimar inquired. Ambrose created a video with Olimar giving him a clock. And then letting him off of the ship. Olimar shook his head, and powered down the device. As Ambrose and his four pikmin stepped onto the platform granting access in and out of the ship, they were lowered to the ground.

"Wait, what does he want to do?" Mia asked.

"To be honest, I have no idea," Olimar admitted. Curious, he stepped onto the elevating platform, and lowered himself to the ground as well.

As you can probably imagine, the mining operation had left a sizable hole in the ground, though it bothered Ambrose little. He and his four pikmin hopped into the hole, and landed with almost no injury. As Olimar and Mia crouched down to peer down the hole, the five red dots expanded, and grew orange. Ambrose ordered two of his pikmin to step on two of the spots, and then had two more stand on the remaining two spots on the outside of the hourglass. Once his four pikmin were on the outside spots, Ambrose himself stepped on the center circle.

The spots began glow with an increasing intensity. Anyone paying any attention would notice that the dirt in the center of the ground was constantly changing, as if it was being constantly replaced by the ground underneath. As it turns out, that was exactly what was happening. The cylinder of Earth, the bottom of which being the lowest part of the bauxite vein, was constantly being lifted up. This, as could be imagined, would create a vacuum between where the bottom of the vein used to be and where it was at the time. To compensate for this, and to discard of the pillar of unwanted Earth above the material to be mined, the ground at the surface was being teleported to the bottom of the shaft. This had three main advantages over Olimar's mining mechanism. For one, while Olimar could move dirt at once centimeter per second, this technique was moving the ground at 3 feet per second. Yet another advantage was the fact that Olimar's method would leave the material at the bottom of the shaft, while this brought the material to the surface. The final advantage became evident as a sparkling mass popped out of the ground.

"It's... it's fully purified," Mia remarked, "Way to go Ambrose."

As the Dolphin's Vector Beam lifted the aluminum mass out of the hole, it logically carried Ambrose and his four pikmin with it. Upon reaching ground level, the pikmin hopped off of the mass. Ambrose was then able to display a picture of tethers attached to both the Dolphin and the Orange Onion, both entities lifting the aluminum mass off of the ground.

"What the _hell_ is that thing?"

Olimar and Mia froze in fear. Ambrose emitted a single orange pulse, and turned towards the source of the voice. A Hocotatan stepped out from a small fissure in the earth. In many respects, he looked similar to Olimar. There were a few differences, though. For one, the Hocotatan had a far darker, redder complexion. He had a triangular beard, and a thin mustache; and his hair, unlike Olimar's three spikes, was black crescent-shaped mass. The man's large nose was a beet-red, down-pointing triangle, and though he shared Olimar's oval-shaped eyes, his were vertical, and had a small maroon pupil. Olimar wished that it had remained dark. Wosber's face was not something he wanted to look at.

* * *

**Well, you know, I think I'm going to take a long vacation from this. I've got something else I'd like to work on – actually, a few other things. Major cliffhangerage, I can imagine, so sorry. **

**I'll try to come back to this once I've got something else done.**


End file.
